July 12, 2016

Kat von D Serpentina Palette

A while back, Kat Von D beauty posted some sneak-peaks of the Serpentina palette, and I knew I had to have it. I am a Egyptophile and almost didn't care what was inside. Once swatches of the inside were revealed, it seemed that the world wanted this too, and after the strange launch it seemed that a lot of people couldn't get their hands on it. Read on to see if it's worth your hard earned cash when it comes to stores later this month!

Bloodmilk: Warm rusty red. Matte

Medusa:Metallic bronze with tonal sparkle

Ankh: Matte black chock full of fine copper glitter

Queen: Metallic rusty rose

L-R: Bloodmilk, Medusa, Ankh, Queen

Hieroglyph: Bright metallic orange

Nile: Pearl sapphire

Scarab: Metallic blackened teal

Venom: Muted medium purple. Matte

L-R: Hieroglyph, Nile, Scarab, Venom

Prophet: Metallic olive-y gold

PIGMENTATION: Nile, Scarab, and Prophet are tied for best pigmentation, and Ankh may be the least pigmented. I don't swatch over a base, so I'm sure that Ankh would perform better over one (especially considering all the glitter in this shade!)

PRODUCT: The textures of Queen, Hieroglyph, Nile, and Scarab, are SO good. Even though it's a color I probably won't wear much, Nile is the most definitely the winner of this palette. Ankh and Bloodmilk had a bit of a dry texture. Ankh and Venom were a bit powdery. I tested out Queen, Ankh, Hieroglyph, and Venom on my eye (sans base) and here were my findings:

Every shade except for Queen had a bit of fallout. Ankh had the most of the bunch and was the hardest to clean up because it's black (duh) and had the most fallout.

I wore my little trash look for about 4 hours, again without a base, and shockingly Hieroglyph didn't crease on my very oily lids. It was also pretty opaque in application (I used a flat synthetic brush to apply if you're curious). Venom faded QUITE a bit-- it would definitely benefit from a base.

Venom applied completely differently depending on the brush I used. With a round fluffy (synthetic) crease brush, it went on VERY sheer. With a small flat brush, the color was pretty true-to-pan.

Queen blended out SO beautifully.

PACKAGING: This might be some of the best-looking cardboard I've ever seen! I really love the shiny gold foil motifs everywhere contrasting with the matte black. It's really awesome that the shade names are on the front of this. The lid has a strong magnet, and the space for Prophet is just big enough to hold the jar in tightly. Speaking of, I don't understand the inclusion of a jar of loose pigment.

Even though I like this palette, I don't think it's really anything to go bananas over. On the plus side, there are some super nice shadows and EGYPT. On the downside, the are a few possible dupes if you're a fellow makeup hoarder (I'll revisit that topic in another post bc this one is already super long), and that random loose pigment wtf.

As always, you don't have to take my word for it! Kat Von D's Serpentina palette will be available in Sephora stores in or around July 22, and will be returning to both katvondbeauty.com and sephora.com eventually.

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